Yosemite History: Carleton E. Watkins, photographer

Carleton Watkins leaving his
studio during the fire following
the San Francisco earthquake,
April 1906 (Bancroft Library)

C. E. Watkins (Carleton Emmons Watkins), 1829-1916

"Carleton E. Watkins was one of California’s early commercial photographers.
In the 1860s, he created some of the first and most important photographs
of the Yosemite region.
"In both stereoscopic and mammoth-plate formats,
Carleton E. Watkins makes the first important
photographic record of Yosemite,
a site he photographed repeatedly in the coming decades;
Watkins’s images circulate widely, especially in stereoscopic form,
and do much to publicize Yosemite throughout the nation."
--From
"The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920"

Josiah D. Whitney’s The Yosemite Book (1869)
included 24 photographs by Watkins of Yosemite
Valley and Mariposa Grove.
These photographs were hand-printed and tipped-in the
book. Only 250 copies of the first edition were
printed (the only edition with photographs).

Credits:
The above collection of early Watkins Yosemite landscape photographs
is from the Library of Congress Exhibit
"The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920"
as part of its American Memory Project.
The production of this collection was supported by a generous gift from
Laurance S. and Mary French Rockefeller.